


Reverence and Regret

by actingwithportals, CosmeerSpots, Hallowyd, ruthlesslistener, SkyeDragonDraws



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Drabble Collection, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Other, Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 9,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actingwithportals/pseuds/actingwithportals, https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmeerSpots/pseuds/CosmeerSpots, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hallowyd/pseuds/Hallowyd, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruthlesslistener/pseuds/ruthlesslistener, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyeDragonDraws/pseuds/SkyeDragonDraws
Summary: Drabble collection from the WonWan discord(Prompt list:https://yetmoreprompts.tumblr.com/post/181775335621/yetmoreprompts-list002
Relationships: Broken Vessel & Hornet, Broken Vessel | Lost Kin/Tiso, Grimm & The Nightmare King (Hollow Knight), Grimm/The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel, Herrah the Beast & The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel, Herrah the Beast & The Knight (Hollow Knight), Herrah the Beast/Hive Queen Vespa (Hollow Knight), Hornet & The Knight (Hollow Knight), Hornet & Tiso (Hollow Knight), Hornet/Lace (Hollow Knight), The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet & The Knight, The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & The Knight, The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Tiso, The Knight & Quirrel (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 99





	1. CosmeerSpots - You don’t have to do this alone

"You don't have to do this alone, Brooks." He tells them and maybe they should listen.

"I _do_ , though!" They sign, "Ghost gave those four rascals to watch over, _specifically_ to me and fuck, I've been through _worse_ things than four toddlers running around a house!"

Something crashes and breaks in the kitchen, making Broken pause in their tirade.

That makes Tiso burst into laughter and, as he wipes tears from his eyes he says, "Are you sure, though?"

"I-" another crash, this time from _somewhere too close_ to Myla's room.

"Tiso, please, by gods, _help me."_

"Hah! I thought so." He says, a smirk decorating his face.


	2. CosmeerSpots - Please, just let me carry you

"This is a _bad_ day." Tiso says as a fact, carefully caressing his _stupid_ aching side. It makes Broken want to gingerly take his cheeks in their hands and shake him till his brain would magically start working.

" _Please,_ just let me carry you for today, then."

"What are you?? Cracked more than usual? Great warriors don't get carried around all day! They should carry _themselves,_ as proudly as one can!"

Broken dips their mask slightly down, hoping to communicate an unamused look. "What if I told you that Hornet, Myla and Ghost got together to make some sweets? With _honeydew."_

"...alright, fine. But _only_ because your big, knife throwing sibling devours those faster than starved booflies."


	3. CosmeerSpots - I would have been there for you

_I've crawled my way through and over our siblings' mask for years- I had to see them all_ **_die-_ **

"I would have been there for you. Were I alive then-" Hornet whispers out.

 _I've struggled for so long, to become a part of something I never belonged to, I never even_ **_succeeded,_ ** _they kept hurting, they kept screaming, just like the Abyss until I_ **_forgot-_ **

"I would have been there for you. If I knew already how to think for myself." she says, her hand clutching theirs somewhat stronger.

 _I had to kill those who accepted me, I had to destroy their shells, I had to see them cry orange, I had to sink my nail through their_ **_hearts and brains till they stopped squirming…_ **

"..."

 _My head was bashed it- I've screamed and I've plead and I've cried my own blood, till I've cried the scorching_ **_orange,_ ** _too, as_ **_they've_ ** _found their way into my head and pushed what I've had left of my brain around, just to make space for themselves- to_ **_bury and bury and bury and then some deeper._ **

Her throat feels closed off and her mouth feels dry. Her shoulders are shaking, but this isn't the place for her to feel sadness. It's theirs, so why is she trying to take it away from them???

"I should have been there for you." She says even as her voice cracks and tears that she doesn't care about feeling spill.

Their hand weakly squeezes her's. Because that is all Broken can manage now, what with their chest still wide open.

_Please, I beg- Let's just be here for each other._


	4. Actingwithportals - Sooner or Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm not leaving you" Herrah & Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by anon
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“I’m not leaving you.”

Ghost looked up, taken aback by the sudden remark.

“Whatever you may think of yourself, or your worth in this world,” Herrah said, her voice stern and unwavering as it always was when commanding attention. “I have no intention of allowing you to be abandoned again.”

Ghost stared at her for a long time, trying to understand the words but finding little comprehensible meaning in them. She couldn’t be telling the truth, could she?

They shook their mask, a firm denial. No. No, they did not deserve that. Not after what they’d done, not after what they’d just allowed to happen to Hornet, of all people.

“I am many things, Ghost of Hallownest,” Herrah told them. “But I am no liar. It is alright if you do not believe me now, but I intend to prove to you my words, so that one day you might believe them without hesitation.”

They weren’t sure such a thing could be possible. Everyone left them eventually. Everyone grew tired of them sooner or later.

**_(Because you’re a monster, little shadow. Monsters aren’t wanted forever.)_ **

They didn’t believe her, but they didn’t argue further. If Herrah chose to sit with them for now, they wouldn’t stop her. But she was lying. She was surely lying.

Even if she didn’t yet realize it.


	5. Actingwithportals - Safety in Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm right here, love" - Grimm/Hollow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Laurie
> 
> AU: [REDACTED]

“I’m right here, love.”

Hollow reached out, clutching their hand against the first solid thing they could find. It was warm, _so, so, warm,_ and they knew for a fact that it must be Grimm. He’s warm and solid and so much different from the burning that their mind still remembered, phantom images playing across their thoughts of the dream from which they had just awoken. Yes, a dream – it was only a dream.

“You’re awake now,” Grimm said softly, tugging on their hand and pulling them up a little so they rested against him. “I’m here; I’m right here.”

They buried their face in his chest, their shoulders trembling even as his arms wrapped around them. The room was dark, with only the faintest glow of red permeating their vision.

There was no golden light, not here. There was only darkness, and comforting warmth.

Nightmares that were so much safer than dreams.


	6. Actingwithportals - Forever Through Eternity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Please don't forget me" Herrah/Vespa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Laurie
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“Please don’t forget me.”

It’s a silly request, and something far more vulnerable than Herrah would normally allow herself to ask. But the hour is late, and the fated day approaches with the rising light. If this is to be the last of her moments with the one whom she shares her heart, she must not allow herself to hide away the feelings that will soon be unreachable.

Vespa, with all of her gentle care and ceaseless love, does not reprimand her for her weaknesses. “Never,” she whispers softly. “Not in a thousand years could I even conceive it. Your voice will always be the melody which plays in my mind, your face the gem of my heart.”

She rests her head against Herrah’s own, sighing. “But please promise you will not forget me, too. In whatever dream you find yourself, please do not let me slip away.”

Herrah wraps two of her arms around Vespa’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Never could I even think it,” she promises.

Forever through eternity.


	7. ruthlesslistener- It’s medicine, take it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Ghost and Tiso

The little sqib perching in his nest was not, apparently, the type of bug who took ‘no’ for an answer. 

If Tiso wasn’t currently struggling to breathe, he’d probably try to kick them out himself. As it is, each breath still bubbles in his throat, and even just the thought of sitting up sends nausea stirring through his already-messed up insides. The civilians in Dirtmouth did their best to pick the armor shards from his split carapace, but from the throbbing tearing through his entire body, he’s not entirely sure that they got all of it.

(It would have been kinder, really, if they had just dropped him into the acid below, so that this strange pale bug wouldn’t have found him bleeding among the ash, where all the dead broken things that wished for a new life withered away.) 

The grub tapped his leg again, soft little paws soothingly cold against his feverish carapace, then pointed at the herbal brew sitting in their lap. Something to stave off the sepsis, he knows. But the thought of swallowing something so bitter after getting his entire abdomen crushed is not a thought he cares to entertain, and with a weak snarl, he pushes them away.

“I’m not taking it, kid. Get lost.” Bitterness wells up in him, unbidden and useless, and, with a bitter laugh, he snarls, “you should have left me to die anyways.”

The cold little paws come back, but this time they press to his leg and stay there, a still, cold compress. He waits, and waits, but their owner doesn’t take the hint and doesn’t move away, and, eventually, he sneaks a glance back at them, against his will.

It’s astounding, the emotions a desperate mind could pick from a face so blank and empty. But Tiso’s half-feverish already and on his deathbed, so for once he finds that he doesn’t have the energy to push away the fear he thinks he sees in the little one’s eyes, to dismiss it as the mad ramblings of an ant who hasn’t had anyone to talk to since…

“Fine,” he sighs, and tries not to let the growl in his voice fade to a whimper. He’s too tired to fight anymore, but he won’t cry here. Not now. “Bring it here.”

When the pale thing crawls up to his side to feed him the medicine (carefully, ever so carefully, doing their best to not cause him any pain), he screws his eyes shut, and swallows every drop.


	8. ruthlesslistener-You didn’t need to do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Herrah and the Pale King

Out of all the things she has said to him, it is that which makes him pause.

Wrapped up in her soft silk sheets, cradling a mug of tea in his foreclaws, it’s hard for her to imagine him as dangerous. Like this, he is not a worldender or a godkiller, but a tired, weary bug too tired to lift up his head, crushed by the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

The cold, numbing tingle of his soul sinks into her skin. She doesn’t know what spell he’s just cast, what its effects are, but the power of it is profound. She can feel it, in the way that it reaches down to the very core of her and wraps itself around her claws, easing the aches left from her spending too many nights with them clamped shut as she battles her grief, new loss mingling with familiar old pain. It’s not something that she would expect from someone who had, just a few months ago, been a rival she had sworn war against.

Now, however, he is fighting to breathe as his life slowly pools back into him, and he looks away from her so that she cannot see the grief in his face when he slowly whispers, “My spell may guide you to your death, but I never wished to cause you pain.”


	9. ruthlesslistener-You don't have to apologize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Ghost and Hollow

The first thing that sibling tells them is _sorry._

After so many years severed from them, so many years burned and torn from the light-that-screamed-and-raged, their thoughts don’t work the way they used to. They don’t whisper, they don’t flow or show or bubble and twist, they are sharp and staccato and melting, nails-and-broken-carapace and pain, lashing through Ghost’s mind like the void tendrils they used in their fight in the place that hummed with the songs of the divine. 

And in their mind they speak with the words that the darkness took from them, painful and foreign, dripping from their head like broken fangs dropping from sagging, torn-open jaws.

_Sorry, sorry, sorry._

Their pain is Ghost’s pain, singing through the void. Their sorrow is Ghost’s, but their shame is not, and it makes its home in their chest, a tight, painful lump like aspid spit, like fire. Wrong, wrong wrong, when it would have been _them_ hanging from the chains if they were a little faster, when all sibling ever wanted was for them to be safe, for the world to stop hurting. For all their death and suffering to not go to waste.

So they wrap their arms around their face and press their mask to theirs, and let their void sing back to them, in the only way they know how. They did not belong to the cold white halls and ornate rituals of the palace, the way that they belonged to the dark of the Abyss and the winds of the wastes, but they can transcribe it back to them, in a tumult of images that speak more than words ever could. Acceptance, sorrow, love, everything that they could think of and more. A gentler whisper than the harsh screams that had torn their mind asunder for so many years, so many years they spent alone. 

Their lost sibling came home to them. Couldn’t that be enough?


	10. ruthlesslistener-Your hands are shaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Lace and Hornet

“Do it, little spider.”

Hornet stared at her, at the blood blooming out bright against the pale white silk. Lace’s mandibles were twisted into a wry grin, but her breaths shuddered with every inhale. The twisted knife buried to its hilt in her side was not deadly now, but it would be, given the chance to rot- and Lace could hardly tend to it now, with her sword arm broken and a nasty-looking cut baring a bloody grin at her from her left thigh. If Hornet had been a few hours late, if she had dallied in the provinces leading to this fetid, forgotten place, then she would be dead. 

“Is this not the opening you were looking for? I’ve always been quick to flee your grasp, pretty thing, but now you have me pinned.” Lace’s words dripped with their familiar sweet poison, but there was a bitterness to them now that had barely been present in their previous encounters. Always hinted at, never shown, but now her mask was down and it was just that sickly-sweet grin, and it felt _wrong_ in a way that Hornet couldn’t quite place. The fury of battle was an easy excuse for the wild swings, the cackling laughter, the near-crazed way that Lace chased her through the depths of Pharloom, in a twisting, dangerous dance that had seemed as much a courtship as it was a threat.

_...Had she?_

“Your hands are shaking, sweet hunter,” Lace noted. She shifted up on her side, wincing as broken shards of carapace jabbed into her arm, and smiled at her in a way that was almost kind. “How strange. Here I am, ready and waiting for you to take my life, and yet you hesitate? Why? You’ve won, darling creature, the capital is yours to take. May your suffering be short, when they finally snare you in their song.”

“Don’t move.” It’s the only thing that she can think to say. It’s better than the alternative, the clumsy, childish _you’re_ ** _bleeding_** that keeps echoing in her mind whenever she looks at her. The golden flower carved on the hilt of the knife flashes with a beauty that seems to mock her, a beauty that gets uglier and uglier the longer that she looks at it. Even the most inglorious, cruel parts of Hallownest’s past were not as grotesque as that gorgeous golden flower, for the horrors within its heart were, at the very least, honest about it. 

Lace’s breath hitches, but she doesn’t reply. There’s a light shining in her eyes that makes something in Hornet’s chest flutter and swoop, but her poisoned words stay hidden behind her teeth as she watches her strap her nail to her back, pull the anti-infection herbs from her pockets. Her golden pin lies well within her reach- not that she could stab very well, with her offhand so slick with blood- but she made no move towards it as Hornet moved closer, her shock replaced with the familiar numbness that came from focusing her soul. Healing was as much a part of war as killing was, and Hornet was, at this point, too used to going through the motions to let it cloud her judgement as she stepped closer to her, as she ignored the sweet, heavy scent of her blood in the air and her heartbeat thundering loudly in her chest. 

When she kneels by Lace’s side, summoning her soul through her fingers in a twist of bright, glowing silk, her hands no longer shiver.


	11. ruthlesslistener-C'mon, let's get you cleaned up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Hollow and Herrah

The vessel was a ruin. 

Even after all those years sleeping, even after all that time hovering in the dream realm watching the distant war between the Hollow Knight and the Radiance, Herrah was unprepared to confront the disaster she left behind. The Pale King had made his plan seem so neat and tidy, when he came to her asking for her support- a prison made of flesh, to forever trap the Old Light, to never be touched with the plague. She had doubted him, had doubted the vessel’s purity as she had doubted all his words, but she had seen the resolve in the Hollow Knight’s face, and she had thought that they would be strong enough to succeed. Certainly, she had never imagined how badly the Old Light could damage them, with the damage wrought only in the dream realm. 

She had been wrong.

Even after her daughter had tended to their wounds, even after all the time it had taken to find her again, guarding the hot springs with a ferocity that rivaled her own...she could not possibly have been prepared for the sight she saw before her.

Their chest was a wreck. There was scarring on their shoulders, from where their pauldrons had grown into their flesh, had imprinted and infected the softening carapace. Their mask was cracked through one eye, the void within still and unmoving. Their right arm was gone, leaving a mess of torn flesh behind at their shoulder, and she could see strips of missing flesh running down their legs, where veins of living fire had tunneled and burst. 

She knew that gods did not die easily. She knew, she had seen it. But this was ridiculous. If it wasn’t for the fact that their sister was standing right beside her, doing her damned best to fight back her tears, she would have taken her needle and ended them now, to save them the suffering of recovery. It would be kinder, she knew, in a world that no longer needed them. The Pale King did not raise his children to have any thought for their well-being, a trait that she had condemned in him but was too deep-rooted for her to dig out. 

“Look at you, you’re a mess.” She speaks to them like she would a child, low and soothing, and was heartened to see a minute twitch in their horns, as they tried to look at her. It was a miracle that they were responsive at all- a miracle and a damnation, for the fact that they were conscious meant that they would feel the pain of what she was about to do to them. Still, she thought that she saw them relax a bit as her daughter reached out and stroked along one of those horns, as she knelt closer and tipped their head back enough for her to see how far the damage extended down their chest. Their mandibles unfolded from the pale chitin of their mask, void-dark fangs flashing as they gasped for air, but when she hooked her claw in one to help her daughter rinse their throat with soul-rich water, doing her best not to let them choke, they did not bite, as docile as a mosscreep lead to slaughter, something that no spider would do if injured as badly as they were.

Was it out of love that they submitted, or out of some deep-rooted instinct they couldn’t shake? Either way, it didn’t matter, and as she stroked their neck and braced them up, she resolved to do the best that she could for the child she had locked away and left to the slaughter. Weeping for them could come later, after both of her children were sleeping and she could wash their void from her claws. “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up.”


	12. ruthlesslistener-It's okay, you're safe now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: The Pale King and the White Lady

Wyrms were a savage, deadly race.

This she knew all too well. While her roots did not yet stretch past the caverns between the sun and the shade, whispers of great wars traveled fast through the colonies. Plants and fungi both spoke freely of the devourers, the destroyers, the hunters who left nothing in their path but barren ruin and bloodshed, of corpses that stretched miles through the tunnels and offered death and solace both.

This one was...different.

It- _he_ , he had told her that he was a he, the moving ones were fond of that distinction- was gentler than his fellows, kinder in a way that she did not expect. Where his kin sought devastation and domination, he chased dreams of care and creation, whispered stories of the great things that he would craft when he captured his territory and Ascended. When her vines had twined around his throat, seeking his destruction to perpetuate her survival, he had sensed her fear and had submitted to her embrace, and, in the aftermath, had courted her sweetly with gifts and stories that had warmed her down to her very core. She had not known love until that moment- catching wisps of it through the minds of others did not suffice. She had not realized how warm she could be, until he twined himself around her roots and spent days talking about things beyond what she could ever imagine.

Now, he came to her across the wastelands bleeding and burned, and she, for the first time, knows the taste of rage, the way that it simmers and burns like fire.

_Who?_ She hums, through the expanse of the dream; his mind is foreign to her still, but he yields for her so easily, bares his bleeding soul willingly. She cradles his exhaustion and pain in the mental world, while his physical form coils around her trunk and her roots come up to wrap around him, brushing soothingly over the plates and scales. _Who did this to you? Who dares to harm you, Pale Wyrm?_

He shivers at the anger in her words. She feels it through every part of herself, and she holds him tighter against her, selfishly seeking the pressure of his body against hers. _ **A brooding mother looking for a safe place to lay her clutch. She saw me as a threat, then thought to make a meal out of me.**_

He speaks like nothing is out of the ordinary, but the pain thundering through his soul says otherwise. Quietly, she begins to pool healing light into his wounds, and he presses his cheek against her in silent gratitude, careful to keep his sharp fangs away from her more delicate vines. _**I managed to make my escape, but the False Light above caught me as I slipped into the caverns. Do not worry, my lady, I will live.**_

_She will not harm you now._ How hungry she was for him, how satiated she felt with this harbinger of death draped carefully around her, with the soft rumble of his purr tentatively vibrating through her bark. She was not yet worshiped by mortal bugs, she had not Ascended, but the love that he felt for her made her feel like she could grow to touch the sky, to become the mother of a new world. _It’s okay. You are safe now_. 

His shaking did not abate- if anything, his trembles grew stronger, his purring stuttering to a stop. Worried, she sent a tendril of thought curling through his mind, cupped his face with her vines and held him close to her, but he just shook her off and pressed closer, his purr returning in full force.

_**No, it’s- do not worry.**_ She had not heard him choked up before, and she drank it in hungrily, all the new facets of him that he showed to her rather than hide it behind his usual mask. What a bleeding heart, this creature was. How readily he yielded to her. _ **I am not upset. I am...happy.**_

Speaking made him silent, and this she allowed, settling into the quiet lull in the caverns that held them both. Above, her long branches creaked with the melody of the wind, and below the stones sang with the hum of his contented rumbling, but in the space between there was only silence, and the comfort of each other’s warm embrace.


	13. Actingwithportals - Assurances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I don't . . . I don't think I can" Hollow & Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by anon
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“I don’t . . . I don’t think I can.”

Their hand trembled with forming the words, but they were still clear enough for Ghost to parse. Ghost looked down at the silk scroll in their own hands, deciding to set it to the side for now.

“It’s okay,” they responded, tapping a hand gently against Hollow’s arm. “Words are hard. So many to pick. Writing is even harder. So many lines to make. Too many swirls. Sometimes confusing. It’s okay. Take your time.”

Hollow dipped their mask, and Ghost knew that look well enough by now to know it conveyed disappointment. And even worse, that disappointed was directed at themself.

“Sibling doesn’t have to write,” Ghost continued. “If writing is too hard, sibling doesn’t have to do it.”

Hollow’s mask dipped lower, their shame all the more evident.

“Sibling is still smart,” Ghost assured them, tapping their arm once again to make sure they were watching. “Sibling is so smart! Sibling can do anything, even if it takes a long time. Ghost believes in them.”

It wouldn’t solve the problem immediately, but it could be something.

Assurances could always be something.


	14. Actingwithportals - Lean On Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm not one to complain, but this really hurts" Herrah & Hollow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Eren
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

They weren’t one to complain, Herrah knew this. But she’s certain it must hurt.

“Take my hand,” she instructed them, holding out one for them to grab and keeping another two ready to help stable them once they returned to their feet. The thorns of the Queen’s Gardens were nothing to dismiss, and Hollow’s already poor state from the past hour could hardly combine to allow for steady balance. They would need to stop by the hot spring in Deepnest once they returned to the Village.

Hollow carefully took the offered hand, and with ease Herrah pulled them up to standing, allowing them to lean against her side.

“Are you alright?” she asked, though considering the day’s events, that question hardly seemed reasonable. Of course they weren’t alright, not after . . . all of that.

They answered with a simple nod and did not elaborate further. Herrah could hardly consider that surprising. They’d talked a great deal already this day as it were.

“If you need to stop along the journey home, tell me,” she said. “Otherwise, you are welcome to lean on me as much as you require. I will not allow you to trip again.”

They still did not respond, but they listened to her words and remained pressed against her for the rest of the walk home.

It was the least she could do for them today.


	15. Actingwithportals - Whatever You Say

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Please, just let me carry you" Hornet & Tiso

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Mons
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“Please, just let me carry you.”

“I am fine,” she hissed, turning her mask to face Tiso with the full of her glower. “I did not survive on my own for hundreds of years to need help from an ant after a misstep on a hunting trip.”

“Yeah, and you were under that stasis whatever-the-shit-wyrm-magic the whole time,” Tiso argued, crossing his arms with a huff. “Like it or not princess, you’re not a full godling, and sometimes you’re going to need help.”

“I do not need lectures from you,” Hornet snapped, her breath catching a little as she nearly tripped over her own legs.

“Would you rather get a lecture from your mother, then, when you show up back home half dead and scare the unliving void shit out of your siblings?” Tiso challenged. “Let. Me. Carry. You.”

For a long time, Hornet just glared at him, doing her damn best to burn holes into his carapace with looks alone.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But if you drop me, I will kill you.”

Tiso grinned, that stupid smug expression he often wore around her. “Whatever you say, princess.”

She could always kill him as soon as he got her back to Deepnest.


	16. Actingwithportals - Eternity Approaching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oh love, don't cry" Grimm/Hollow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Laurie
> 
> AU: [REDACTED]

“Oh love, don’t cry.”

They could feel his thumbs gently brush away the few tears that had dared to fall. They hadn’t meant to cry, hadn’t wanted to be reduced to so much emotion when they wanted to be composed in this moment. But they couldn’t help it, not after those words. Not after that promise.

They took one of Grimm’s hands and pressed it against the side of their mask, leaning into the warmth of his touch. “It’s alright,” they assured him, letting go of his hand only long enough to form the words. “I’m happy. I’m so happy.”

His expression softened at that, the warm glow from below illuminating his features in beautiful figures of flames and shadows dancing together as if on a stage. “Good,” he said, his voice a soft rasp. “I am happy too.”

And that was all that could be said about it, wasn’t it? With eternity approaching, carrying a promise of a warm embrace, what better words could convey that anticipation other than those of joy?

And in that night, joy was almost all that Hollow could feel.


	17. Actingwithportals - Slow Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You don't have to keep pushing yourself" Ghost & Hornet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by the-local-guy2 on tumblr
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“You don’t have to keep pushing yourself.”

Ghost looked up at their sister, tilting their mask in question.

“I’m serious,” Hornet said, crossing her arms with obvious disapproval. “I know how hard you always feel you must try, but it is alright to slow down sometimes. No one would think lesser of you for needing to rest.”

They stared at her, processing her words for a moment before shaking their head in disagreement. “No. Wrong.”

They could see Hornet’s eyes narrowing beneath her mask, a look of challenge coming over her. “I do not say this to slight or discredit you; I tell you because I recognize these patterns far too well. You are going to burn yourself out at this rate, and that will cause far more harm than slowing down ever could.”

They shook their head again. They were fine – they didn’t need to _“slow down”_. They couldn’t afford to – not now, not anytime soon.

Hornet sighed. “You are too stubborn for your own good, Ghost of Hallownest. You realize this?”

They did; they understood that well.

But that wasn’t going to stop them.


	18. Actingwithportals - Isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I would have been there for you" Grimm & Nightmare King Grimm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Laurie
> 
> AU: [REDACTED]

“I would have been there for you.”

The words stung far worse than any blade or spell could dare to achieve. And if he had not already taken the follies of accusations thrown earlier this night, Grimm might have stumbled back as if struck.

“If you had told me sooner, if you had told any of us, I would have stood at your side to find a resolution,” his father spoke, the fire in his words reduced to nothing more than smoldering embers now.

“Speak for yourself,” Radiance spat. “There is only one resolution to this, and your child has made it clear where he stands on that matter.”

Grimm’s hands clenched tighter beneath his cloak, the tips of his claws just barely threatening to pierce his palms. But he kept quiet; he had already spoken enough this night.

His father did not argue, did not even attempt to counter his sister’s words. And that stung all the worse.

“The world shall be a difference place when the day begins,” the Nightmare King quietly declared, turning away from Grimm to stare into the endless sky of the Sleep Realm. “We have much to prepare for before that time comes. Your presence is no longer needed or wanted here. Be gone.”

Grimm did not have the energy to argue, so he simply bowed in acknowledgement and took his leave.

He should have expected nothing more than isolation after what he’d done.


	19. Actingwithportals - No More Worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How much do you remember?" Quirrel & Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by anon
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“How much do you remember?”

Quirrel looked down at his small friend standing before him, their mask tilted up and slightly to the side in question.

He laughed, a little nervously. “I will be honest, my memory is . . . slightly vague on some of those details.”

The little vessel nodded in understanding; their hands held still for a moment before they continued. “Not afraid anymore, yes? No more worries or regrets?”

Quirrel nodded, reaching forward to pat the top of Ghost’s mask and rubbing gently. “No more regrets,” he agreed. “I suppose I have you to thank for that?”

Ghost shook their head, rather adamantly too, Quirrel noted. They pointed a claw up towards him, signing with their other hand, “Just thank Quirrel. Quirrel faced his regrets. Quirrel made him happy again. Thank you for taking care of my friend, Quirrel.”

Oh, well this vessel was going to break his heart and put it back together, weren’t they? He knelt down before them, placing both hands on their shoulders before pulling them into a hug. “Of course,” he told them. “I’m glad to do it, especially if it brings you gladness too.”

That was the best he could do, wasn’t it?


	20. Actingwithportals - Unspoken Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Broken Vessel/Tiso

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Spot
> 
> AU: Wondrous Wanders

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

He glared up at them, sticking up his middle claw in the only answer he felt coherent enough to give in that moment.

Broken rolled their eyes, or at least the one eye. Tiso wasn’t sure if the other eye did much of anything, considering how he couldn’t actually see the damn thing, fucking weird-ass void.

“You’re sick,” they stated, their hands somehow managing to convey a deadpan beyond all of Tiso’s expectations of reason. “Exactly how long now have you been sick?”

He was not dealing with this, not today. Tiso ignored their words, deciding instead to bury his face in the nearest pillow and groan with all of the frustration and discomfort he could summon, which was admittedly quite a lot.

With his eyes no longer in their direction, Tiso couldn’t see if Broken had a response for his outburst, or if they were simply laughing at his plights. But it wasn’t long before he felt a presence kneel down beside him, and a cold hand brush gently against the back of his head in soothing motions.

He couldn’t see them, and the little void god terror wasn’t close enough for him to hear them, but Tiso was certain he knew the words Broken would be speaking to him right now if they could. _“Tell me next time, please? Don’t push yourself so much alone. I’m here to help.”_

He didn’t bother to argue the unspoken promise; he knew it was pointless. Besides, if situations were switched, wouldn’t he say the same?

Yeah. Yeah, he would.


	21. Actingwithportals - Have To Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Please, just let me carry you" Hornet & Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by upsetfawn on tumblr
> 
> AU: We Are Wide Awake Now

“Please, just let me carry you.”

Ghost adamantly shook their head, signing “no,” repeatedly, as if Hornet had not seen them the first time.

“Ghost, you are going to fall asleep where you stand, and I am not in the mood for making a trek down to the hot spring if you fall on a spike as a result of your stubbornness,” Hornet groaned, roughly placing her needle onto her back and reaching out her arms to her sibling. “Please, for the love of whichever god you find least insufferable today, allow me to carry you the rest of the way home.”

Ghost, her dear, dear sibling that she loved oh so much, shook their abnormally thick mask once again in agitated defiance. Hornet could feel two of her eyes twitching, and it took a great deal of effort for her to not simply pick them up then and there, damn their complaints.

“It is late, and I am not in the mood for games, Ghost,” she told them instead. “Do not make me threaten you.”

Ghost looked up to her with a challenge reflecting in the dark of their voided eyes. “Bite me.”

_Oh, don’t tempt me with a good time, sibling._

“That’s it,” she growled, scooping them up in one fell swoop. “When we get home, I will be eating your share of honey treats, mark my words, Little Ghost.”

Her sibling kicked and struggled against her hold but was unable to free themself in their exhaustion. Hornet was well aware she would pay for this later when they were more coherent, but for now this would simply have to do.

She would just have to sharpen her needle that night once they arrived home in preparation for fighting a void god whenever it struck their fancy to challenge her.


	22. SkyeDragonDraws - You're going to make yourself sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're going to make yourself sick", Tiso & Hornet  
> Requested by Mons.

“You’re going to make yourself sick.”

“Shut up,” says Hornet. “I’m _fine_.”

(The trembling of her hands on the shaft of her needle makes Tiso doubt that she’s anywhere beyond barely functional, let alone fine.)

“Ghost will worry,” he tries. “If you’re gone for too long.”

“I will not be gone long,” she retorts. 

“You’re going to _fucking collapse_ out there,” he snaps. It was meant to end there, but before he even realizes what he’s saying, his big stupid mouth opens and he keeps going. “Please, I- _I love you like a sister, **stop** hurting yourself like this_!”


	23. SkyeDragonDraws - "Where - where am I?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Where - where am I?", Hornet & Hollow  
> Requested by Compy

Their little sister groans, screwing her eyes shut and clutching at their cloak. She’s too thin, shaking and trembling and coughing, but she’s _back_.

Hollow had thought they’d never see her again, after she’d been taken.

Hornet groans again, and presses the hand not grabbing their cloak to the center of her mask. “Where- where am I?”

They bring their mask down, holding her close. Hollow can’t let her go to sign, ( _wyrm_ , they’re not letting her go) so they hope that the rumbling purr in their chest is answer enough.

_Home, sister._


	24. SkyeDragonDraws - "Stop it, you're bleeding!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Stop it, you're bleeding!", Lacenet  
> Requested by Aren

“Stop it, you’re bleeding!”

“Oh, _am_ I?” Lace rests a hand against the wound on her chest. “Was I not supposed to be, little spider? You cut me with your own blade.”

“You’re going to die,” the red-cloaked warrior says, and Lace feels the needlepoint resting against her neck lower. “Stand down.”

Lace grins, the corners of her eyes crinkling with a special sharpness. “Perhaps that’s the _point_ of a fight between enemies, Hornet.” Her pin, which had hung limp by her side suddenly flicks up, its point resting against Hornet’s collar. “Only one of us leaves this clearing tonight, and I cannot _wait_ to discover who it will be.” 


	25. SkyeDragonDraws - "This is going to hurt."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is going to hurt." Broken and Lost (two au versions of broken vessel. Broken hails from the wonwan au, and Lost is from rain and needles)  
> Requested by Spot

“This is going to hurt.” 

“Well _fuck_ , I thought it was going to feel like sunshine and roses,” Lost snaps, their claws sinking into the table. Their wings are spread, the tear in their uppermost right one standing out starkly against the wood. “Get a move on, will you, clownpole?”

(The tremor underneath the irritation in their voice betrays them)

Broken leans down, resting the side of their mask against Lost’s and letting out a comforting rumble before drawing back. “Let me know when you’re ready, okay?” They offer Lost their hand. 

Lost takes it, wrapping their whole hand around Broken’s thumb and taking a steadying breath. 

The needle doesn’t pierce Lost’s wing until they let go. 


	26. SkyeDragonDraws - "I didn't mean to get blood on your cloak"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I didn't mean to get blood on your cloak." Hornet & Herrah  
> Requested by Compy!

It’s her daughter, her _daughter_ is in her arms again. She’s older and sharper and much, much colder, but she’s here.

Hornet - _and her name is Hornet, a good, strong name for a good, strong daughter_ \- hisses suddenly, and her hand darts to her shoulder. Hornet looks, and before Herrah can begin to see what is wrong, she feels her daughter stiffen.

“I didn’t mean to get blood on your cloak,” Hornet says. “I’m sorry, Mother.”

“You’re _bleeding_ \- oh, oh _child_ , let me see.” 

(The cloak is the least of her worries.)


	27. SkyeDragonDraws - "I came as soon as I heard"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I came as soon as I heard." Tiso and Hornet  
> Requested by Jess

“I came-“ Tiso skids to a stop right in front of Hornet “-as soon as I heard.”

“Fuck you,” says Hornet. “I hate you.”

Tiso grins, resting his elbow on the nearby counter and propping his chin up with his hand. “Ghost ran right to me, signing frantically about how their sister needed help, and you know, I was so worried about you-“

“Shut the FUCK up and help me get out of this stupid yarn, or I’m telling them that it was _you_ who ate the last honey stick.” Hornet snarls. 

(It was _not_ an empty threat.)


	28. SkyeDragonDraws - "It's okay, you're safe now"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's okay, you're safe now." Herrah & Hornet  
> Requested by AWP
> 
> Warning for brief mention of suicide. It's in the parenthesis, fourth line down. take care of yourself!

It’s a long, _aching_ moment before she lowers her needle. 

Her mother stares at her, alive, _awake_ , far too much so for this to be real. 

Has the Radiance finally overtaken her? No, no, she would have _noticed_ , she would have _felt it._

(She would have turned her needle on herself, before she became this delusional.)

It feels _wrong_. Hornet takes a step back. - or rather she _tries_ to, but her shaking legs give out from underneath her, and her needle clatters to the floor. 

Hornet does not follow her weapon to the ground. Instead, she is caught, and held to her mother’s chest.

It’s safe and it’s warm in a way so unlike Her false comfort. 

“ _It’s okay, you’re safe now_ ,” her mother murmurs, and Hornet _sobs_.


	29. SkyeDragonDraws - "I'm not leaving you"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm not leaving you." Hornet & Hollow  
> Requested by Shay

Their hand grabs her cloak. 

She sees the fevered haze in their dark eyes, and she knows they aren’t aware of the world right now. 

It would be easy to leave them, to attend her other duties. They will not benefit from strict watching right now.

(If something is wrong enough on the inside to kill them, she won’t be able to do anything about it.) 

Still, she lets them tug her closer, and settles in the nest beside them. Their too-warm mask presses into her side, nosing under her cloak like they’re trying to hide. 

Hornet rests her hand on their forehead, rasping her claws across the unnaturally smooth material in an attempt to soothe them. “I’m not leaving you,” she assures her trembling sibling. “I’ll still be here.”

( _Please don’t leave me_.)


	30. SkyeDragonDraws - "I should have been here sooner, I'm sorry"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I should have been here sooner, I'm sorry." Ghost & Hollow  
> Requested by Shay

Their sibling shudders before them.

Hornet says it’s still touch and go. Hornet says they might not make it.

(Hornet says to be ready to say goodbye, if it comes down it)

Ghost can’t bring themself to touch Hollow. They know their sibling is warm, too warm, still burning with the embers of Her. 

Claws pierce palm as their hands clench into fists.

They should have been _faster_.

They should have been _better_.

The void of their hands sizzles as they lean closer. 

“I should have been here sooner, I’m _sorry_ ,” they whisper over the void. 

(If they have to be ready to say goodbye, the least they can do is offer their sibling an apology, for all the good it won’t do.)


	31. SkyeDragonDraws - "You don't have to carry this alone."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You don't have to carry this alone." Ghost & Hornet  
> Requested by Spot

Her mother’s killer sits by her as the last particles of dreamstuff spin into nothingness. 

The vessel sits by her side, even as she demands it leave, and rests its hand on her back as her snapping words dissolve into sobs. 

Paper rustles, and the vessel shifts.

Hornet glances over. The little thing is busily scribbling something down on what appears to be the back of a half-finished map of Deepnest. 

It finishes, and offers the paper to her. 

She takes it. The vessel’s handwriting is scratchy and unpracticed, but shockingly legible.

 _Sister_ , the scrawl reads, _you don’t have to carry this alone._

She glances up, her eyes narrowing even as fresh tears slide down her mask. “Vessel, what is the meaning of- oh.”

They’re offering her their hand. 

Hornet takes it. 


	32. SkyeDragonDraws - "It's going to be all right"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's going to be all right." Oro & Lost  
> Requested by Spot

Everything hurts. 

They’re _scared_.

They _hate_ being scared.

It feels like their void is trying to claw out their eyes, through the crack, to split their head _all the way in two._

They don’t want to die like this. 

It _hurts_ it _hurts_ it _HURTS_ -

Footsteps. A familiar cadance. 

A whine escapes them. They can’t help it- even the familiar has terrifying potential right now. 

The footsteps stop. There’s silence for a moment, followed by a deep sigh and a void. “C’mon kid.”

Arms wrap around them, lifting them out of the corner they’ve curled in, pressing them close to a softness they didn’t know still existed in this world of pain.

“It’s going to be alright,” Oro says, and they can’t help but believe him. 


	33. CosmeerSpots - It’s worse than it looks

"It's worse than it looks, huh?"

Broken snaps to look at Tiso who's standing right next to them, away from the mirror. Oh, how they wish they could just  _ take _ the mirror and hit him up on the head with it.

But that would make a mess and while they do not believe in old sayings entirely, they'd rather not risk their luck right now.

After all, their chitin still feels soft. A cut from glass would do them no good.

"Fuck off," they sign at him with hands that shake more than normally, before looking back to the reflective surface. They do have to admit, though. Their scars are somehow worse than they look.

This is their first cocooning after they've died and they… they honestly  _ wished _ that the scars would go away. Especially the one in the eye. It makes them look so…  _ so... _

Alien.

Like they do not belong, this isn't them, but it is and they hate it. Their mask being cracked open was bad enough, but to… to lose their own  _ eyes _ to Her like this…?

Tears must have welled up in the ugly things that probably could not pass for eyes in biology, because they hear Tiso sigh.

"Hey, if it helps? I think the scars make you look stronger. More experienced. And that is not a bad thing, is it, now?"

...they suppose that it isn't.


	34. CosmeerSpots - All right, what’s the damage.

"All right, what's the damage! You're starting to scare me, Broo." Hornet lets herself fall down right next to them on the old couch that they somehow managed to fix and clean up enough to keep.

 _I have no idea what you mean. I'm all fine and dandy, no problem with this individual-,_ they point at themself with their entire hand, _I can NOT be more happy!_

"Keep your lies and slander to someone with no sight, you are literally covered in bandages soaked up in your own hemoly- void."

Hornet watches as they switch to their hands to speak to her, in Deepnest's sign language, too. She can feel Ghost squinting at them from where they are sat at the table.

"Listen here, Net- _no, do not try to play smart with me by saying you cannot hear sign, just listen._ I genuinely don't think you want to know this." They say while they attempt to stare her down. Tch, they should know better by now.

In respect to them, she signs back. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. There's nothing I would not be interested in listening to, when it comes to you. Do you not remember the hunting days?"

One of their hands turns into a fist that they shake for a little bit while they try to think. "Gods, okay, fine."

Oooh this might be interesting, actually! So she tilts her head at them, to show Broken that she's listening.

"...so I think I might have a crush…?"

That is, honestly, a string of words that Hornet could not have seen coming at all.

So she, understandably, screams out, " **WHAT???"**


	35. CosmeerSpots - You don’t have to apologize

Hollow says sorry a lot, Ghost found.

At first, they used to keep silent- not even a peep, not even a single gesture. But when they started speaking to them through the shadows that will eternally connect them in comforting hug, or signing with their one lone arm, they said sorry almost all the time.

Their first word to them was sorry.

A lot of conversations ended up with them saying sorry.

If they touched something they thought frail, they said sorry, even if it did not break.

Sorry, sorry, sorry and I'm sorry.

Sometimes, it makes them want to be annoyed-  _ angry _ , because it's the same thing over and over again for the stupidest things and even though they love Hollow and understand, they-

They- nothing. Exactly because of those two things, there's nothing. Ghost loves them and understands them. That's why there's melancholy always replacing the half baked anger.

And that's exactly why they put their so much smaller hand over Hollow's before they can sign another sorry for making a mistake in one of their wondrous stories.

You don't have to apologize.

Ghost tells them, whispers through the darkness that they've learned to wield.

There's no one watching. There's no one judging. It's just me. And I love you. And I won't get angry because of a small mistake. You needn't be perfect, twin dearest.

I promise that I'm true.


	36. ruthlesslistener-I should have been there sooner, I'm sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR TW FOR SUICIDE IN THIS ONE
> 
> Characters: The Pale King and The White Lady

She felt the moment he passed.

It was like cleaving herself away from her first, greater form; it was like the pain of shearing away the heart of herself, leaving herself bared and vulnerable to the world. Many centuries she had been bound to him, many millennia; bound by ties of her own making, bonds that others would call shackles but she saw as freedom, a thriving of the self from where it had twined around another. Not easily did the gods love, and not for long, and yet he had loved longer and fiercer than most, a love that was- _that had been, that_ ** _should have been_** \- never-ending. 

For he had promised eternity to her, and she had abided, and into his first death he had fallen to fashion a body for himself that was lesser than what his old form had been, and to create the bond between them that would facilitate their marriage. To her he had yielded his pure, undying soul, and she had taken it and cradled it to the heart of herself until they were one. Even when separated, even when taken by distance and time, and in her arms he had wept for joy of the bond between them, as no wyrm ever had; he had wept for a bond of creation, a tie for marriage and for love, and she had kissed away the tears and felt the way he had clung to her and knew a bliss she had never thought she would ever feel, as a mere sproutling in a land of pitiless gods and starving beasts. 

And now it was gone, and an empty void inside of her yearned, and she...did not know what to do.

In a way, she had expected it. She had spent so long with her heart tied to his; even with the distance between them, crafted with every clutch lost to the Abyss, she had known his heart, and the pained poison within. She had known his ways, how bitter and distant he could be with no clear purpose- she had known his love for the kingdom beyond, for the mortals and their bright, fleeting minds, their curiosity and their endless, insatiable hunger for knowledge. With it torn from them by the Enemy Light, he had no real reason to live; with her gone from his life, there was no one left for him to tend to. Hallownest had been his identity, his first child, the first creation spawned by their union, and it had fallen. It had fallen, and with it fell the Vessel, that empty darkling thing that wore her child’s face and fostered an endless void within, and she had known how much he had loved it, no matter how much she advised him not to. She had felt it, the poison-bitter drag of the thorns over his heart. She tasted the evidence of it, the aftermath, in the deadly orange vitriol that soaked into the soil, bled by so many of her kingdom’s fallen. 

The Old Light had taken everything from them. It had taken their city. It had taken their children. It had, with vengeance and fury untold, methodologically destroyed every little thing that they had held dear, until there was nothing left but weeping misery, and an endless, creeping rot. It had destroyed their very reason for existence, until they were naught but two failed gods perched on opposite ends of their once-glorious kingdom, watching the bugs that they had promised to protect fall to ruin before their very eyes.

And so he had destroyed himself. 

Her roots shake, as she slithers them up to the half of the charm she kept close to her chest. When she unravels it from the parts of herself that she twined around it, it does not light up at her presence, or hum with that quiet acknowledgement of her soul as it did when they were still together. There is no spark of life left to it as she cradles it in her roots, and though her eyes have failed her, they have not yet gone dark enough for her to see that there is no pulsing glow around it anymore, as it once did when it thrummed to the beat of his heart. 

There’s nothing left of him in this realm but remnants. If she strains her senses, she can still feel the faint echo of his power, but of his Kingslight she feels nothing. He is gone. He is dead, cut off so cleanly from the world around him that his new death could only have been one of his own making, and this time, she feels no promising thrum of power when she pokes the lingering spells he left around his kingdom. Even the Palace is gone, vanished to the Dream Realm; their nest, once made for her by him, now taken into solitude and fashioned into his deathbed. 

There’s nothing left but the ghost of him.

“I should have been there,” she whispers to the fragment; no response lights it up, as it used to when she would speak to it from her gardens in the time before, and would feel his soul jump to answer her. How surreal, to think that such times would never come again; it felt like only yesterday. Even in her solitude, away from him, she had never intended for it to be final. She had only wished for time to contemplate on what she had done, when she had felt it all fall into nothingness, a quiet place for her to mourn that was solely her own, away from the sharp, painful grief that was his. How she hoped the edges of that raw pain was soothed now, wherever he was, gone where she could never follow. “I should have been there sooner. I’m sorry.”

Her half of the Kingsoul does not answer her. She did not expect it to, but the emptiness yawns, and yawns, eating away at all the parts of her she cut away to give to the Void, and she was too weary to fight it any longer. With the world so ravaged around her, she took only comfort in their embrace; it would be easy, so easy, for her to propagate herself and take their kingdom from the Light that had stolen it back from them, but without her love, the thought left her heartsick. Her children would not have his keen, cutting mind. They would not have her laugh. They would not carry the bright, burning curiosity that she had felt within him, they would not share their beauty. 

She had had that opportunity before, and she had given it all to the void. For her people. For her love. For everlasting Hallownest. 

And it had all gone to rot. 

So she sags into her bindings, and lets the exhaustion take its toll on her; too tired to mourn, too tired to cry, even with the last of her family given back to the earth. It was not the worst that could happen to them, after all, and she had had many years to mourn the children she had spawned, only to destroy before they had a chance to hatch. She too could survive this. No matter how painful. No matter how the guilt wracked her, the emptiness mocked her, until it all mingled into a faint numbness that rang in the back of her head, one her husband was not there to ease.

Already, she missed him. Truly, deeply. But there was nothing that could be done. He was gone, and she hadn’t even a body to mourn, a form she could lay to rest. Even that had been stolen from her. 

She could only hope that someday, through the mercy of time and fate, they could meet once again, and live, and laugh, and love as they did before, in the silver years before the fall.


	37. CosmeerSpots - Please, don’t forget me

_ Who are you? _

Broken asks her again, unintentionally slashing at her heart and piercing through it like they did so many times to other bugs with a real nail.

The water in the bowl in her hands shakes, small ripples interrupting the calm of it as she trembles.

Oh, just how many times has Hornet told herself already? To not feel such sorrows because of others? Repeatedly and many many. Do not feel  _ anything _ because of bugs, for that will destroy you, for that will get you killed.

And yet…

When  _ Broken _ fails to recall who she is, tears fall from her eyes and heart. Sadness and hurt grips her throat and the water in the bowl spills as she lets it go in favor of letting her arms fall limp to her sides and  _ sobbing. _

_ M-miss? Are you quite alright?? _ they ask her, concerned, sinking another blade through her thorax, making her sob even more.

Standing up is so difficult to them, still, she can  _ see _ how many troubles it causes them. But still they put up the effort to get up on their  _ half rotten _ legs and shuffle towards her, tilting their  _ broken open _ head at her, while a  _ white glowing pupil _ that should  _ not _ be there searches her.

It makes breath catch in her throat, it makes her cling to them carefully. And when they hesitate in hugging her back, she hides her face in their neck.

“ _ Please, _ Broo, dragonfly, don't  _ forget me-” _ She just can’t lose them again. Not like this, not now when they are pulling themself together, they can’t- they can’t just leave and yet still be  _ here- _

Arms wrap around her. Cold mask leans against the side of her face and carefully nuzzles. It’s too shy of a nuzzle to be  _ Broken’s, _ but it’s something.

Maybe she just needs to keep remembering for the both of them for a little while. 


	38. CosmeerSpots - What did you do?

“Okay, fine, what did you do?”

Tiso asks them. The one  _ giant _ great not-bug sitting in their nest looks at him innocently with those gargantuan fucking eyes. Their chest is at least three times wider than his own but hell, that is  _ not _ going to stop him from coming closer to them, hands on hips, looking generally pissed.

“Well? Will you answer me, or? Where have my sweets gone??” Those were his favorite! He doesn't share those with  _ anybody _ , but two people and Hollow certainly is not one of them.

The seemingly little lying piece of shit hides the tip of their mask under some blankets as they try to appear even  _ more _ innocent. Ha! As if that would work on  _ him. _

He starts to pace from one side of the nest to the other, pointer finger directed to the ceiling as he marches and seriously announces, “I have been WARNED of your shameful habit of stealing and consuming food and sweets of others! Do  _ not _ try to hide your sins and mistakes!”

Turning around, he points the finger accusingly at them and they attempt to tilt their head just so a shine of the lumafly lamps would catch on their stupidly large horns to make him melt or something.

THAT won't happen though.

“Hollow!” He shouts a bit too loud, perhaps, throwing his hands above his head. “I have known you for  _ years _ now! We have fought side by side quite the few times. You are  _ not  _ fooling me.” He says, coming right in front of them and tapping the tip of his finger against their forehead few times to emphasize his point.

They cower for a bit, before peeking their head out of the blankets properly, tilting it again and opening and closing their mouth few times.

“Is that supposed to mean that you were hungry.” he deadpans and then facepalms as they nod.

“Unbelievable.” Tiso mutters underneath his breath as he crosses his arms, as he now has to deal with the giant, sweets-stealing dumbass trying to physically nudge him towards forgiveness.

Ugh, this is going to be a long, sugarless day, won't it?


End file.
